Google Buys Robot Maker Boston Dynamics

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Google bought Boston Dynamics, a robot maker known for creating robots with life-like movement, according to a report.

”We are looking forward to this next chapter in robotics and in what we can accomplish as part of the Google team,” Boston Dynamics co-founder Marc Raibert told PCWorld.

It's the eighth robotics company Google has bought up in the last six months, and Andy Rubin, the former Android chief will be heading the projects. Boston Dynamics is known for its unusual robots which were designed like animals, such as the four-legged WildCat, or the Cheetah, which runs 28 MPH. Other robots mimic humans and balances itself on two legs, including controlling its own temperature with sweating.

Its creepier robots include Rise, which climbs up walls like an insect, and Squishbot which is a "shape-changing chemical robot," according to PCWorld.

Boston Dynamics was founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology alums and its clients include all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Google did not comment on the report.

While some worry that Google could be creating Skynet, the nefarious sentient artificial intelligence system in the Terminator trilogy, perhaps its simply a Google X project that may lead nowhere.